 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Gladstone 1809-1898 for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Product Description
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
This cannot be right. Gladstone split the Liberal Party, an organisation that he loved dearly, over his apparent views on Ireland. Whilst Matthew suggests that Gladstone all along intended to fly the "Hawarden Kite" as he had come to view it as the best thing for the Irish people, he gives little or no space to the alternative theories. For example, Gladstone may have altered his views to pro-Home Rule after the press became convinced that he had already, just to save his son the embarrassment of admitting he was wrong. Or he could have done so to see just how much personal loyalty he could command from the Liberals, perhaps in order to prevent Queen Victoria from appointing a Tory-Whig coalition in 1886. Much more likely still is that Gladstone adopted Home Rule to force Joseph Chamberlain - with his dangerous views on protective tariffs - out of the party which was the bastion of Free Trade.
Matthew's overall direction is very good, but at times it reads too much like an undergraduate essay. The constant repetition of phrases such as "as we shall see" and "as has been seen" suggest at times he is pushing for the word limit rather than drawing together Gladstonian threads with any real motive.
Furthermore, whilst some readers may be aware and have a good understanding of Gladstone's life, others may not - this is not the book for them, although it is nevertheless the most informative and thought-provoking on the market.
I read it, and I liked it, but it was sometimes tough going, and I felt that the alternative arguments were not duly considered - a mistake which the Grand Old Man himself would never have made!
The result is not a biography in the traditional sense, nor is it meant to be. Matthew does not bother to cover Gladstone’s life from event to event. Instead, he provides an intellectual portrait of the man, using thematic chapters to chart the development of his ideas and how they were applied throughout his public career. Though a challenging book which assumes that the reader has a familiarity with the events of the era, in the end it is an enormously rewarding read, one that offers an invaluable examination of the man and his times.
The result is not a biography in the traditional sense. Matthew does not bother to cover Gladstone's life from event to event. Instead, he provides an intellectual portrait of the man, charting the development of his ideas and how they were applied throughout his public career. The result is a challenging work, one which assumes that the reader has a familiarity with the events of the era (for those who don't have one, I recommend supplementing Matthew's book with a historical survey of the period, such as Norman McCord's British History, 1815-1906 or the relevant volumes in the Oxford History of England series). Yet in the end it is an enormously rewarding read, one that offers invaluable insights which historians will use for generations to come in shaping their understanding of the man and the era.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Historical > Britain > Military
- Books > Biography > Historical > Countries & Regions > Europe
- Books > Biography > Political > Britain > Gladstone, W.E.
- Books > Biography > Political > Britain > Prime Ministers
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Ireland
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Queen Anne, Georgian, Victorian 1701-1901
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > Countries & Regions > Europe
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > Political Structure & Processes
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
